COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

In the days when Coventry was dominated by the car industry all the factories and suppliers would agree to take the same holidays



In Coventry’s industrial heyday the streets would fall silent for two weeks every July for the ‘holiday fortnight’.

In the days when Coventry was dominated by the car industry all the factories and suppliers would agree to take the same holidays.

In those days, before Ryanair, the majority of workers and their families would pack their bucket and spade - and be shuttled off to the seaside in huge convoys of coaches.

Coaches hired from such companies as Red House Motor Services.

Red House had been around since the late 19th century and had been running day-trips called Summer Seaside Services from Coventry since the 1920s.

In 1979 they were bought by Harry Shaw Travel - a private hire company.

In an interview in 2010, director John Shaw said: “In the peak years the most popular destination was Great Yarmouth with 20 to 25 coaches alone.

“Skegness would have another 10 to 15 coaches.

“I think Leicester had a massive affiliation with Skegness whereas Coventry was more with Great Yarmouth.”

The date of the holiday used to be dictated by the closing of factories, but later became more dependent on the school holidays.

John said: “It was always the same time every year, the first two weeks of the summer holiday - after the schools had broken up.

“Coaches would go one Saturday and return the next Saturday - Leicester was always a week earlier and Birmingham a week later.”

In their heyday Harry Shaw’s had up to a hundred coaches going to various corners of the country - but since 1985 it has changed.

The once thriving motor industry was at the sharp end of a decade of decline - and was no longer the lifeblood of the city.

“It’s definitely not like it was,” John said.

“Red House Coaches had been doing it for about 90 years - over that time it has changed massively.

“Coaches would go to Skegness, Weston, Yarmouth and Rhyl.”

In those days the coaches weren’t all their own.

“In the heyday we’d sub-hire the coaches,” John explained.

“There would be leasing companies who would hire us their coaches and then move on to another area.”